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A Day at Geogetown Elementary

We created a video that takes you from arrival in the morning, through learning activities in our PK-5 classrooms, lunch, recess and ends with dismissal in the afternoon. Two West Ottawa broadcasting students agreed to film, edit and produce the video with the intention of helping our sister school students understand a typical day at our school.

I hope you enjoy this video and get a sense of the wonderful parts of our school…the children, staff and volunteers!

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Raey Guang Visit On Schedule

Raey GuangOur visitors from Raey Guang Elementary are firming up their itinerary for their visit to the United States in early June!  They will arrive at Georgetown on June 3rd and depart on June 4.

The interest in the trip was higher than expected.  The teachers and principal were overwhelmed with 70 student applications.  Because there were spots for only 32, the students had to take an English exam and perform in an audition or interview.

The purpose of the visit is to introduce the students to American culture and traditions, as well as exposure to English language.  The time at Georgetown will give them a taste of American schooling.  Each Raey Guang child will be matched with a student from our building which will allow them to ride the bus home, eat dinner with their host family, spend the night and ride back to school on Friday, June 4.  This should be a wonderful experience.

I have matched 22 Georgetown students with Raey Guang students.  I am still looking for 10 more host students.  If you are interested, and your child is in grades 3-5, please let me know via email or phone.  You can also comment on the blog and I will receive this notice as well.

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Exciting News!

Raey Guang

Our penpals are coming to visit!   We found out at the beginning of this month that a group of students, teachers and parents will be making the journey from Taiwan to Michigan to meet us.   Currently, they are scheduled to arrive in Michigan on May 29 and visit our school on June 3rd and 4th.

For those of you who are new to Georgetown within the past year, our school was matched with “sister school” in Taiwan in September, 2008.We have been communicating with Raey Guang Elementary through email and blogging.  The BLOGPALS site contains highlights of our Link for blogcommunication together.  You can access this from the left sidebar by clicking on the map of Taiwan.

In addition, several of our students are matched with students from Raey Guang.  They are emailing one another, sharing information about their families, interests and school life.  You can read some penpal correspondence between:

Raey Guang School is situated in Pingtung City, Taiwan.  Matthew Lawrence created a google map to show you have to get from Hudsonville to Pingtung.

As we learn more about the visit, we will post information on Blogpals site and link it to this blog as well.

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Pen Pal Update

penpalFor those of you who have been patiently waiting to hear from your Taiwanese Pen Pal, please read this email I received from Helen, one of the teachers at Raey Guang:

Dear Mrs. Reagan,
I’m very happy to hear from you again and I’m doing fine. Thank you. The reason that your students received no feedback from any one of our students is because we were on winter vacation. And our students need the assistance from English teachers to read and write you back. We’re going to start the pen pals activity this afternoon. I’m sure that your kids will soon receive information from us.

I’m very excited to tell you that we’re making a plan to visit Georgetown Elementary next year!  I will write more later.

Helen

If you have not heard from your pen pal by March 5, please get in touch with me and I will email Helen again.  Also, this is exciting news that teachers will be visiting Georgetown!  I will let you know details once I receive them from Helen.

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Seeking 18 more Email Pen Pals

penpalI have successfully matched 21 of our students to 21 Raey Guang students for an email pen pal program.  I have 18 Raey Guang students who are still hoping for a pen pal from our school.  If you child is in grades 3, 4 or 5 and would like a pen pal, read on:

Our sister school, Raey Guang Elementary has forty children that would like to become email pen pals with children from our school.  If you are interested in this, please complete this pen pal survey form. I will work with a teacher and the principal from Raey Guang to match children.  This is open to children in grades 3, 4 and 5.  I would like to send the names to Taiwan over the holiday break so the correspondence can begin in the new year!

Mrs. Reagan

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Raey Guang Email Pen Pals

penpalOur sister school, Raey Guang Elementary has forty children that would like to become email pen pals with children from our school.  If you are interested in this, please complete this pen pal survey form. I will work with a teacher and the principal from Raey Guang to match children.  This is open to children in grades 3, 4 and 5.  I would like to send the names to Taiwan over the holiday break so the correspondence can begin in the new year!

Mrs. Reagan

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Message From Taiwan

Pingtung MapWe have received two emails from Raey Guang Elementary following the typhoon disaster of early August.

The principal, Chung Wen Yu, shared the following:

Thanks for your kind care about the typhoon in Taiwan. Places near sea and in mountains were severely destroyed after this typhoon. Our school is located in downtown area, and luckily nothing was really damaged. But, we all really concern the people who are suffering from this disaster. We’ve been trying to provide what we have to people there to help them. We also really appreciate your international rescue team; they worked really hard cleaning the mess and helping people rebuild their house and lives. Thank you again!

And, from Sarah:

Thank for your caring. It’s all fine in Pingtung urban center. The most terrible disaster is in the mountains. So far. there were much mud in some villages, and many soldiers, volunteers help clean the mud. However, there is anthoer potential crisis-infection disease, like H1N1. Anyway, hope everything and everybody are safe and well.

Please continue to keep the thousands of people who are homeless and dealing with the loss of loved ones in your thoughts and prayers.